- Lucid Gravity SUVs will get entry to twenty,000 Tesla Superchargers on January 31, the startup introduced on Tuesday.
- The Gravity will be capable of cost at 400 kW, quicker than another EV on the U.S. market.
- It will max out at a good 225 kW on 500V Tesla Superchargers.
The Lucid Gravity SUV hit the market in late December as the primary non-Tesla EV to return outfitted with Tesla’s previously unique charging port design. Beginning on January 31, Gravity homeowners will achieve entry to Tesla’s huge Supercharger community, that means they’ll be capable of take full benefit of that new charging port, Lucid stated on Tuesday.
Homeowners of the Air, Lucid’s different automobile, might want to dangle tight till the second quarter of this yr for Supercharger entry, the corporate stated. Lucid stated Gravity homeowners will be capable of plug in at 20,000 Supercharger stalls.
On Tuesday, Lucid additionally took the chance to announce some really monstrous charging speeds for the Gravity, each when hooked as much as Superchargers and to different stations. These speeds might be totally different, for causes we’ll talk about in a second.
Picture by: Lucid Motors
The Gravity shall be able to taking in 400 kilowatts of charging energy at sure stations due to its 926-volt structure. (Most EVs function at round 400V, whereas some function at 800V or larger.) So far as we will inform, that’s the very best score of any EV on the U.S. market. However good luck discovering wherever to check it out; 400 kW exceeds what most public DC quick chargers are able to. Mercedes-Benz Excessive Energy Charging stations assist these speeds, however these stations are few and much between.
Lucid says the Gravity can add 200 miles of vary in lower than 12 minutes, and we’re keen to check that out for ourselves. The startup says it was in a position to enhance charging speeds due to an “superior cooling system” and a brand new Panasonic battery cell. The extra kilowatts an EV can take up, the quicker it’s going to cost, broadly talking. And as of late, something considerably over 200 kW is superb.
There’s a catch, although: You’ll solely get the quickest charging periods at 1000V stations, Lucid says.
EVs that operate at effectively over 400V—together with new Hyundai and Kia EVs, the Porsche Taycan and extra—do not carry out notably effectively at lower-voltage chargers, which most Tesla Superchargers are. The Lucid Air, for instance, expenses at greater than 300 kW at sure high-powered stalls. Plug it into most Superchargers or one other low-voltage stall, although, and the Air has to spice up the voltage in an effort to settle for a cost. So it’s solely able to charging at a sluggish 50 kW at these sorts of places.
Picture by: Lucid Motors
Lucid chief engineer Eric Bach advised me lately that he sees that like extra of a “flat-tire package”—that means, Lucid gave the Air simply sufficient functionality at these lower-voltage stalls to get homeowners out of a bind.
The Gravity ought to carry out rather a lot higher, with Lucid claiming it might probably hit “sustained speeds of as much as 225 kW on 500V structure quick chargers, together with Tesla V3 Superchargers.” For those who’re curious as to how this works, the Gravity makes use of its rear motor to spice up a charger’s voltage as much as match the 926V of its battery pack. Hyundai’s EVs utilizing its E-GMP platform (just like the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Kia EV6) do one thing related. Another EVs successfully break up their 800V packs right into a pair of 400V batteries to realize an analogous impact. Tesla is within the means of rolling out higher-voltage V4 charging stalls.
The Gravity is a milestone for Lucid. It’s the California-based EV startup’s second automobile, and a seven-seat SUV that ought to assist it reel in much more patrons than the Air luxurious sedan ever might. And judging by a short check drive InsideEVs took late final yr, the Gravity is great. The corporate lately began delivering Gravitys to Lucid workers, plus their mates and households. Wider buyer deliveries ought to begin quickly.
Tuesday’s information can also be an enormous deal for the broader American EV panorama.
The entire auto trade is in the method of switching from the long-established Mixed Charging System plug—which principally each non-Tesla EV has used for years—to the North American Charging Commonplace, which was proprietary to Tesla till lately. During the last couple of years, carmakers have struck offers with Tesla to make use of its port design and provides prospects entry to its big charging community.
Clients from a number of manufacturers can now use Superchargers, however solely with an adapter. That record is rising steadily. The following wave of this transition will contain non-Tesla automobiles that come from the manufacturing facility with the NACS port. A few of the first are the Gravity and new Ioniq 5, and lots of extra will observe.
Lucid says all new Gravity SUVs will include CCS-to-NACS adapters, in addition to with J1772-to-NACS adapters, the latter of which work for slower, AC chargers. However with native entry to twenty,000 Tesla Supercharger stalls and loads of Tesla Vacation spot Chargers, try to be effectively coated for charging choices.
